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Open source telephony is largely software-based, and is by nature less costly than hardware-based PBX systems. Aside from cost, however, there are several other factors that make open source attractive for business telephony. Open source telephony solutions have two primary components -- software and hardware. The most widely deployed software platform is Asterisk, the most strongly associated with PC-based telephony.

In addition to Asterisk, SIPX, FreeSwitch and Yate are notable open source telephony software platforms.

As the open source community has become more focused on the telecom market, these solutions have become more complete in their ability to meet customers needs.

In an all-IP world, telephony systems could be completely software-based. Today, however, businesses still need PSTN connectivity, and hardware.

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Open Souce Features:

• Feature support -- voice mail, fax, conferencing, etc.

• Operating system support -- Linux, Windows, Unix, Solaris, etc.

• Hardware interfaces -- analog, digital, PRI, etc.

• IP telephony vendor support -- Nortel, Avaya, Cisco, Polycom, etc.

• Protocol support -- TDM, ISDN, SIP, H.232, IAX, MGCP, etc.

Open source software has led to the development of PC-based IP telephony systems, where no external hardware is needed. For the first time, businesses had an alternative for telephony that was not based on costly, purpose-built hardware components.

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Traditionally, PSTN connectivity was performed by a standalone media gateway, which housed the DSPs necessary to enable carrier-grade VoIP. As PC-based processors become more powerful, processing cards have recently been developed that can enable real time voice communication without costly DSPs. The leading providers of these DSP-free processing cards for telephony are Sangoma, Digium, and Varion.

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Key features making open source telephony attractive to businesses

Feature	Benefit for businesses
Lower costs	Larger businesses can replicate their TDM PBX features at a fraction of the cost, while smaller businesses can have the same look and feel as larger businesses at a price they can afford.
PBX-type feature set	By their nature, open source PBX solutions include features added as required by users worldwide. The feature set is much richer than any closed system.
Flexibility	Open source PBX solutions can adapt and integrate with almost any existing telecom infrastructure, whether it be directories, dial plans, billing, etc.
Open system	End users can customize almost any aspect of their telephony software. This allows them to add features or modify existing features where and when they like. Open source puts control in the hands of the customer.
Scalability	Open source telephony systems can be easily and economically expanded. No costly network hardware upgrades are required.

DSP-based media gateways

The evolution from DSP-based media gateways to DSP-free processing cards is an important one in the open source continuum, but is really just one of many. On a broader scale, open source is really moving along a path where the starting point for telephony was a system based on hardware-based components. These components were expensive, closed and proprietary. As software expertise developed, and as IP technologies matured, more and more hardware-based functions have become software-based, and telephony solutions have come to support a mix of both.

PSTN hardware

At this time, PSTN connectivity still requires a hardware interface, and the PSTN is still the dominant mode for voice traffic. However, much of the PSTN voice processing is software-based, including signaling, switching, conferencing, voice-mail handling and compression. Only the functions that are very dependent on hardware are done on the voice card itself. These include HDLC handling, voice channelization and sometimes echo cancellation and voice compression.

Many aspects of telephony are becoming software-based, and open source is continuing to reshape what is possible in telephony, especially so long as PC processing power continues to increase and costs continue to fall.